Joomla! Documentation™

Errors Reported

When updating Joomla! the database table structure has to be up to date before the process can start.

The Pre-Update Check for Joomla complains if this is not the case.

But when you go to Administrator → System → Maintenance → Database, there is no entry available.

Versions Affected

General Information

What is the Cause

This is caused by an empty #__schemas table in the database. Most likely this occurs when the Joomla! instance is not installed by the official Joomla! installer but through a customized script which did not fill in all required data.

How to Fix

You can fix this by adding the missing value to the table. First, you need the ID from Joomla!. Go to the #__extensions table via phpMyAdmin (or another database client). Search for name=files_joomla and write down the ID (in our case 211).

Second, you need to know the latest SQL script which is installed. Go to administrator/components/com_admin/sql/updates/mysql and get the file name with the highest version. In this example, assume 4.0.3-2021-09-05.sql is the file name with the highest version. Now you have to add this in your insert query as the second value:

INSERT INTO `#__schemas` (`extension_id`, `version_id`) VALUES
(211, '4.0.3-2021-09-05');

or for PostgreSQL:

INSERT INTO "#__schemas" ("extension_id", "version_id") VALUES
(211, '4.0.3-2021-09-05');

Replace #__ with your database prefix (see Global Configuration) before running the statements.

Then go to Administrator → System → Maintenance → Database and fix the tables.

Now the update should work as expected.